Manufacture of pile rugs, carpets, and mats



March 26, 1957 J. WAAGE I ,7

MANUFACTURE OF PILE RUGS, CARPETS AND MATS Filed May 6, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet l I2 I v INVENTOR.

Jacob Waage .7-

March 26, 1957 J. WAAGE MANUFACTURE OF FILE RUGS, CARPETS AND MATS Filed May 6, 1.954

4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. Jacob Waage March 26, 1957 Filed May 6, 1954 J. WAAGE MANUFACTURE OF PILE RUGS, CARPETS'AND MATS 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG. 5

56 E 58 so 53 g F 56 seu sv JNVEN TOR; 9 Jacob Waage March 26, 1957 J. WAAGE 2,786,508

MANUFACTURE OF PILE RUGS, CARPETS AND- MATS Filed May 6, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 4 INVENTOR.

Jac 0b Waa g e United States Patent MANUFACTURE OF PlLE RUGs, CARPETS, AND MATS Jacob Waage, Bergen, Norway Application May 6, 1954, Serial No. 428,090

7 Claims. (Cl. 154-11) This invention relates to a method for manufacturing pile carpets, rugs, mats and the like, and has for its object to provide a method whereby such rugs, carpets and the like can be produced inexpensively as well from high class materials giving a high quality product, as from cheap or even waste material.

According to the invention, a method of making pile carpets, rugs, mats and the like, comprises the steps of twisting or wrapping continuous lengths of material in closely packed or partial overlapping windings around a core, so that a helical coil of material enclosing said core is obtained, forming a sheet consisting of parallel rows of a plurality of said coils in a single layer, locking or anchoring the material in the coils facing one side in said sheet together by means of rubber latex or other adhesive, slitting the material in said coils at another location of the windings, and finally removing the cores through such slits.

Preferably said looking or anchoring is obtained by bonding to a sheet of hessian, canvas or similar material.

Further objects and features of the invention may appear from the following specification and the appended claims. 1

In order that the invention may be more clearly understood, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, some preferred embodiments of the invention and some constructions of apparatus for carrying the invention into pracrice, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a section of the rug during its manufacture, drawn on an enlarged scale, the'left side showing aside elevation of a coil, the right side illustrating a section of the coil,

Fig. 2 is a section on the line IIII in Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a section similar to Fig. 2 illustrating some other preferred embodiments with respect to the core to be used,

Fig. 4 is an illustration substantially in diagrammatic form of apparatus and method used in a practical method of assembling a number of coils to a single layer row of coils and anchoring one side of the coils together,

Fig. 5 is a similar section as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, disclosing some further embodiments of cores for use in a special embodiment of apparatus and method,

Fig. 6 is a section on the linejVIVI of Figs. 5 and 7 on one end of coil while in said apparatus,

Fig. 7 is a plan view on a small scale of an apparatus 2,786,508 Patented Mar. 26,. 1957 6 along a coil, respectively, are shown, in order to illustrate the basic feature of the invention.

Referring more specifically to Figs. 1 and 2, a yarn 10 is wrapped or twisted around a core 11 to form closely packed windings of a helical coil enclosing the central core 11. By applying rubber latex or other adhesive to one side of the coil, the adhesive being applied in such quantities that a substantially continuous layer 12 is formed, each winding may be bonded along a longitudinal line to the other windings in the coil.

Instead of using such rubber latex quantities that a continuous layer is formed, .a web 13 may constitute the continuous layer.

In order to form a sheet of rug, a plurality of coils are laid closely packed in a single layer of parallel rows of coils and bonded together as well longitudinally as transversally on one side of said layer, as disclosed in Figs. 2 and 3, by means of adhesive and a suitable web.

By applying a cutting action in the direction of the arrow 14, Fig. 2, for example by means of a rotating knife not shown, each coil may be slit lengthwise, and the core removed. Hereby, vertical strands 15 are formed. Such strands form the pile or nap of the finished carpet, and may eventually be further trimmed by cutting or clipping in the direction of the arrow 16. 5

Most preferably, the backing forming web 13 consists of an intermediate linen 17 impregnated with the rubber latex or other suitable adhesive 12, and a sheet of canvas, hessian or the like 18, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

In the preceding and in the following description only the use of yarn 10 as the coil forming material is disclosed and shown upon the drawings, but it should be understood that the yarn may be substituted by strips, ribbons, waste cuttings of for example textile cloth in continuous lengths and the like. In that case such lengths may be wrapped around the core with a partial overlap between adjacent windings.

Referring now more specifically to Fig. 3, the use of a preferred embodiment of a core section is disclosed. Firstly, it should be noted that the core 19 has an elongated cross section in the two first cores of that figure. Said core is adapted to be produced in continuous lengths of a pliable material by extrusion in a suitablethermoplastic extrusion machine by using a suitable nozzle.

The cross section of the core 19 is as mentionedelom gated, having longitudinal sides-20 and a lower preferably rounder transversal lower side 21, and a groove 22 in its opposite upper side. It is readily apparent that when applying a cutting action in the direction of the arrow 23, the cutting tool may enter into the groove 22 and cut the strands of the yarn 10 completely through. It is thus in no danger of damaging the core during the cutting action, so that the core after removal from the coil may be used in a subsequent operation.

Although the use of pliable plastic cores 11 is gener ally preferred in most cases, metal rails having a cross section as shown to the right in Fig. 3 may be used in such cases wherein a high degree of stillness. and eventually a self supporting ability is desired. Such metal cores may consist of channel formed rails 24' having an openinginto the interior of the rail. The ends of the channellegs are bent inwardly at 26 in order to avoid any damagebr shearing action from such ends. The metal rails 24'may be produced in continuous lengths from, plate metal in a suitable machine.

Although the pile usually is sufiiciently smooth after cutting, when using this embodiment of core section, the

grammatic and 'are given vfor illustration purposes only.

In Figs. 1, 2, 3, 5 and 9 sections of the rug and in Fig.

surface may betrimmed in the finishing operation by applying a cutting action, for instance by rneans'of-a band knife, in the direction of the arrow 27.

It is readily apparent from Fig. 3 that any desired height of'pile may be obtained in the finished rug after cutting and removal of the core. Such height may be regulated by means of the length of the longitudinal sides of the cores 19 and 24, respectively. The density of the pile depends, among other factors, upon the dimensions of the yarn in relation to thethickness of the core. Among such factors governing the stiifness or density of the pile the twist of yarn should be mentioned. Obviously, the more twisted types of yarn contain a higher degree of filaments at a given cross sectional dimension, and should consequently be able to give a stiffer or denser pile in the carpet or rug. However, highly twisted yarns should not be preferable in that they are apt to prevent penetration of the adhesive into the yarn for bonding each lament in the yarn to the carrier. A good bond between backing and yarn is desired to prevent subsequent loosening of fibre bundles in the finished rug or carpet.

Such lowered penetrating ability may also be caused by selecting improper adhesive and/or using incorrect properties and proportions thereof. However, it should be emphasized that by a suitable selection of the different materials a wide range of pile types may be obtained. It has been shown in practice that it is possible to produce a pile rug or carpet having the desired degree of density by using loosely twisted yarns and by means of cores having thicknesses of several millimeters, and further that it is even possible to produce rugs according to the invention which are too stiff and not easily launderable in that an expressive number of strands are present in the pile.

Several methods for laying out coils in a single layer upon a backing should now be described. Referring specifically to Fig. 4 coils consisting of yarn 1G and cores 11 as in Figs. 1, 2 or 3 travel from a roll 31 in the direction indicated by the arrow 310. A reed 32 is used for distributing the coils for the formation of the single layer row of coils upon a beam 33, upon Which a sheet of canvas, hessian or similar strong material serving as a backing in the finished rug, has been laid as the lowermost layer. Said sheet, indicated at 34, travels from a roll or beam 35 and together with an intermediate linen 36 and the ends of the coils 30 being secured to the beam 33 at 37.

The intermediate linen 36 is used as carrier for the adhesive and travels from a beam 38 over a roll 39 into a bath 40 over another roll 41, in the direction of the arrow 41a unto the beam 33. It is generally preferred to use rubber latex as the adhesive material in the bath 40. When cores having an elongated cross-section as shown in Fig. 3, preferably extruded from a thermoplastic pliable material into the cross section shown to the left in said figure, it is preferred to use an additional reed 42 for orientating the cores in the direction relative to the backing as shown in Fig. 3.

It is preferred to use a close packing of adjacent coils in order to enable easy cutting of coils in the subsequent cutting operation. Further it is preferred to choose the dimension of the beam 33 so that a plurality of layers of the composite structure consisting of backing webs and parallel row of coils are wound upon the beam 33. In this way, the lower side 21 of the core 19 (Fig. 3 to the left) presses the yarn in each coil firmly against the backing, so that the impregnated intermediate linen layer 36 locks or anchors the fibre bundles of yarn to the canvas sheet 34. After a suitable setting time, the structure shown to the left in Fig. 3 is obtained.

The. coils are now to be slit lengthwise and the core removed. This may be done by leading the rug past a band knife in the direction of the arrow 16 in Fig. 2 or the arrow 27 in Fig. 3.

The cuttingv operation may also he proceeded by means of a set of rotating knives acting in the direction of the arrow 14 in Fig. 2 and the arrow 23 in Fig. 3.

After removal the cores are rewound with yarn for a subsequent operation.

When wrapping. the yarn upon the cores, a convenient apparatus for performing this function may be used, the construction of such apparatusbeing well known in the art and forming no part of the present invention. However, it should be noted that it is as Well possible as desired to wind more than one yarn length simultaneously upon the core, so that a number of parallel coils of yarns are formed upon a common core. Further, if an adhesive having good penetrating properties is used, it should also be possible to use double wound coils. How ever, it is believed that the use. of single Wound coils is to be preferred, in order that the height of pile should be dominant in the crosswise direction of the rug. When using multilayer coils. it is obvious that the dimensions from the transversal side 21 in the cross section in Fig. 3 down to the backing is increased.

As an adhesive it is preferred to use latex rubber in a suitable liquid state, as aforesaid. The viscosity of the adhesive solution or dispersion should of course be regulated, so that it does, not penetrate through the coils and bond the yarn windings to the core, whereby t e core cannot be removed. Further, in the embodiment disclosed in Fig. 4, the liquid adhesive should not be able to penetrate out to the opposite surface of the backing, whereby the adjacent layer of the composite structure forming the half processed rug would be bonded to each other upon the beam.

The embodiment disclosed in Fig. 4 necessitates the use of at least two beams for the materials and one beam for assembling the backings and the layer of parallel rows of coil. Although said embodiment has the advantage of high processing speed, the cost of equipment should be relatively large, in comparison with the more simple and inexpensive equipment now to be described.

In the embodiment disclosed in Figs. 5, 6 and 7 selfsupporting rails are used. With special reference to the first two coils in Fig. 5 from the left, a stiff rail structure composed of halves 51, 52 having channel formed cross section and separated by distance pieces 53, is shown. Thereby a slit 54 is obtained in the middle of the rail, so that the yarn coils indicated at 55, by cutting at the slit 54, may be divided into two halves, each being bonded to a backing consisting of a sheet of canvas 56 and an intermediate linen layer 57 carrying the adhesive 57a. As is obvious, it is only necessary to cut the coils from one side, and as shown to the right in Fig. 5, it is also possible to use either a plastic rail 58 having a groove 59, or a metal plate rail 60 having an opening slot 61 along the middle of one side of the rail.

In order to be able to lay out the cores or rails in a parallel row, an arrangement as disclosed in Figure 7 and indicated in Figure 6 is used. Each end of rail is supported by frame members 62, 63 forming the longitudinal sides in a rectangular frame 64, the end members 65 of which being pivotally supported by stub shafts 66 in suitable bearings 67. After packing a desired number of rails with coils wound thereon transversely supported in the frame, they may be pressed together for the convenience of closer packing by a pressing rail 68 supported by screws 69 in one end member 65 of the frame.

When a suitable number of rails covered with coils 55 of yarn has been placed in the frame and closely packed together by means of the rail 68, the upper side of the row of rails is coated with rubber latex and the backing material, whereupon the frame is pivoted, so that the other side faces upwardly. After applying adhesive and backing material also to this side, the adhesive is set, and finally each coil is double sided cut lengthwise, the cores removed, and eventual finishing operations proceeded.

It is readily apparent that the arrangement described above has the advantage that two rugs are manufactured simultaneously. Another advantage is further that because the cut is applied to a vertical part of the coil, no subsequent trimming of the rug surface should be necessary. Further it should be noted that although the backing is applied in'a. batch'operation, the wrapping or windassent ing of yarn upon the rails may be' proce eded in a continuous operation thereby that they are placed'in'end-to-end relationship in the winding machine, subsequent lengths of rails being fixed to the preceding length by means of short joint pieces engaging the interior of the rails. The yarn is then cut at the joints when the coil is fully wrapped upon the rail. After" wrapping the rails are inserted in the frame until the desired number of rails have been coated with coils of yarn.

Still another embodiment using a single continuous length of core is now to be described with special reference to Figure 8. In this embodiment a drum 70 having a length corresponding to the desired width of the carpet or rug, and a circumferentiallength corresponding to the desired length of a carpet is used. The drum 70 may have a width of four to six meters and a diameter of two to three meters, corresponding to a rug or carpet of a width of four to six meters and a length of six to nine meters. The drum '70 is-mounted' in bearings 71 for rotation upon its shafts 72 in the direction of the arrow 73 by means of a transmission comprising a sprocket wheel 74 and a chain 75 driven by another sprocket wheel 76 over a chain 76a from a motor 76b. Upon this drum 70 continuous length of yarn coil 77 is wound in a single layer, forming a helical coil or screw winding upon the periphery of the drum. Upon the periphery of the drum 70 the canvas forming the backing of the rug is mounted as may appear from Figure 9, wherein a part of the drum 70 is shown, the canvas backing being shown at 78 and adhesive at 78a. In order to obtain a close packing and an adequate distribution of the yarn coil 77 when unwound from a reel 79 rotatably mounted upon a shaft 80 in suitable bearings 81, a distributor 82 placed upon a screw 83 is foreseen. The distributor guide 82 and the guiding screw 83 is rotated slowly at a speed adapted to distribute the yarn coil evenly and closely packed upon the circumference of the drum 70.

During its passage from the reel 79 to the drum 7!) the yarn coil passes an adhesive coating device indicated at 84, in order to provide the lowermost part of the yarn coil with a suitable amount of binding agent. Preferably said binding agent consists of rubber latex, and after coat ing the yarn coil will be firmly bonded to the canvas backing upon the drum 70.

When a single layer of yarn coil windings have been produced upon the drum the setting of the adhesive is brought about. If rubber latex dispersion has been used as the binding agent, evaporation of the dispersing agent, i. e. water, brings about the setting. As soon as the adhesive has set, the cutting of the coils and removal of core may take place. For this operation, the distributor device 82 is substituted by the cutting device shown in Figure 9.

Said cutting device comprises a supporting frame 85 guided by the screw 83 and eventually two additional guides 86 on each side of the screw. Upon the supporting frame 85 an outwardly flaring arm 87 is mounted adjustably by means of a set screw 88. At its outer end the arm 87 carries a guiding roll 89 supported by a spindle 99. Said spindle may be adjusted vertically in a slit 91, and the roll 89 being free to rotate upon its spindle 90.

Intermediate its ends the arm 87 has a rotating knife 92 positively driven by a spindle 93 by suitable means not shown. The spindle 93 may also be adjusted vertically in a slit 94, so that the knife edge is located in the groove 22 of the core 19 of the coil 77, said yarn coil preferably having a cross section as shown to the left in Figure 3.

By rewinding the released core upon the reel 79 it is readily apparent that the core during said cutting operation may be released, and a new coil of yarn for use in subsequent operation formed around the core. The wrapping of yarn may be proceeded either before or after rewinding upon the reel 79, during the backward travel from the drum 70 or in the course of the forward travel from the reel 79 to the coating device 84. It is further defined in the appended claims.

obvious that the coil of yarn remains upon the drum bonded to a sheet of canvas, as indicated in Figure .9. After completely slitting the coil through, simultaneously removing the core, the rug may be removed as a finished pile rug by loosening a wedge 95 indicated in Figure 9.

For cutting the coils upon the beam33, Fig. 4, an arrangement similar to the apparatus shown in Figure 9 may be used. It should be obvious to one skilled in the art how the apparatus should be'modified for obtaining such a modification.

As mentioned above, as well the type of yarn to be used, as the adhesive may be varied in numerous ways, all falling within the scope of the present invention as Further, the type of backing to be used should be chosen accordingly. As mentioned above, a customary liquid rubber latex dispersion has shown to be useful and fulfilling most requirements. All accordingto the conditions, the hardened or solidified rubber layer may serve as a sole backing or it may be reinforced with a linen, or, as a preferred embodiment, a sheet of canvas or hessian may serve as'the real backing.

The liquid rubber latex will set at usual room temper ature. However, if elevated temperatures are to be used, it should be noted that precautions should be taken that the core material is able to withstand such temperatures. However, in some cases it should be possible to apply the heat from the backing face of the rug, in order to prevent the core from being subjected to excessive temperatures.

In the embodiment shown in Figures 8 and 9, the interior of the drum may be provided with suitable heating means in order to obtain backing of the rug while it still remains upon the drum.

When it is desired to produce rugs and mats having a coloured pattern, such may be produced by printing the pile face of the rug either before or after removal of the core. However, special precautions should be taken to obtain the best penetration possible in such cases. Further, it may be ditlicult to obtain sharp and delicate patterns in this way. It is also possible to use difierent coloured yarn in different areas of the coils, whereby the location of such coloured strips give a corresponding pattern in the finished rug. However, the correct sampling should be estimated exactly in beforehand when delicate and multicoloured patterns are to be produced.

The more detailed trimming and finishing operations of the rug after cutting and removal of the cores are mainly dependent upon the characters desired in the finished rug. However, such trimming operations are most common in the art and should obviously he proceeded in the same way.

Although the core has been shown in the drawings as either being a metal rail or a plastic monofilament, it may also consist of a number of threads spun together into a suitable structure.

The dimensions of the core may be varied. Usually it is preferred to use rails or monofilaments ranging from about one to several millimeters in thickness and a height giving a pile height of from ten to fifteen millimeters. The rails according to the embodiment disclosed in Fig ures 5, 6 and 7 should of course have a height amounting to the double of the desired pile height.

Also in other ways the invention may be varied according to the requirements of practice, such variations being obvious to one skilled in the art.

What I claim is:

1. A method of making pile carpets, rugs, mats and the like, comprising the steps of wrapping continuous lengths of yarn about a continuous core in closely packed relationship so that a helical coil consisting of windings of said yarn enclosing said core is obtained, wrapping said coil helically upon a drum having a circumference substantially less than the continuous length of said coil and carrying a backing material to form a continuous helical coil of windings enclosing said backing material the per phen' at said. rai a plaie it f sa w n ings, s aisi ina at a si ne at sa d. c n num s ya n oil bondin t e yar'a was and back n by mean at inlzbe at x to sai backi a s i t ng the windings of each yarn coil through by. a lengthwise cut extending oppes e h n ge ent ne bet en "s id mi and a backing, and finally removing said core through the slit.

2- A method w anli g in cla m w er in a li ting proceeds during and simnltaneonsly with removal and unwinding of said core from said drum.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein each yarn winding around said core is impregnated with adhesive t Pfdfmined and localized spet during winding of a d. Yar sa 29a h ai 4. A method according to claim 1, wherein said core has an e ngated ross ti n, a d ya n hi ls being Won (1 on the with a shorter side of said cross sect Qn en a in sa baskin mate i 5. A: method of making pile carpets, rugs, mats and the k c mpr in se er n the p ip ery of a r m with a backing forming a first continuous helix comprised of a plurality of windings of material enclosing said backing and said drum, each inding comprising pile material mattin subs nt a y rad a y t a a m, s i helix having 'a length exceeding several times the circumferen- 8 a n t Q aid nunl bond n tq th r the n e e ds Qf iiile ria afid an back f b m n o an a hea d nd realm s said backing om ai m With the pile material bonded thereto at one side of said backing and extending snbstantially transversely to said side.

6. An apparatns for forming pile carpets, rugs, mats and the like, comprising a drum, a continuous core, means for winding yarn about said core, the core having a length at least a plurality of the circumference of said drum, means for forming a coil consisting of a continuous length of said yarn covered core upon the circumference of said drum, and means for removing said core While having the yard on the circumference of said drum.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6, comprising means for slittingthe yarn upon said core in a line extending lengthwise of said core and being located opposite the line of engagement between said coil and the circumference of saiddrum. i

Relierences Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,854,193 Hopkinson n Apr. 19, 1932 2,475,019, Paris July 5, 1949 2,592,201 Shaw Apr. 8, 1952 

